Police investigate Colorado link to Delphi murders

The release of a police composite sketch of a man believed to be linked to the killings of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams has led to hundreds of new tips, police said.
Dwight Adams/IndyStar

DELPHI, Ind. — Police are looking into the possibility that a 31-year-old man arrested in Colorado is connected to a double homicide in Delphi.

Daniel Nations was stopped Monday by police in Colorado while driving a red Chevrolet Prizm with an expired Indiana license plate, according to a news release from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

"This vehicle was identified in several tips by the public regarding menacing complaints in the Mount Herman area, as well as the Town of Monument," police said in the written release.

Jacqueline Kirby, media relations manager for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, said Nations was suspected of threatening passersby with a hatchet.

Less than two weeks before Nations' arrest, a bicyclist was shot and killed on Mount Herman Road, according to a separate news release. It's unclear if Nations is a suspect in the death, which has been ruled a homicide.

Nations was arrested by Woodland Police Department on suspicions of possession of a weapon by a prior offender, and potential charges from the sheriff's office are pending, according to police.

Kirby said citizens submitted tips to the media that Nations or the homicide were somehow connected to the deaths of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams, who went missing Feb. 13 while hiking on secluded trails east of Delphi and were found dead the next day.

That information was passed on to police in Colorado, who relayed it to investigators in Indiana, Kirby said.

In a statement to the Journal & Courier, Indiana State Police Sgt. Kim Riley said detectives were made aware of Nations' arrest and have been investigating his possible ties to the girls' deaths

The person in the sketch is described as a white male between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-10-inches tall, weighing 180 to 220 pounds, with reddish brown hair and an unknown eye color.

Nations is a white male, 5-foot-9-inches tall and 169 pounds. In earlier posts on registered sex offenders, he has weighed as much as 190 pounds.

"Please keep in mind the Indiana State Police has received more than a thousand photos of persons alleged to be similar in appearance to the composite sketch of the Delphi person of interest," Riley said.

"Each and every one of these tips are investigated for any potential connection to the case. We will give the same attention to the person arrested in Colorado, but right now there is nothing that definitely connects this person to our investigation.

"If this should change — with this tip, or any other tip — rest assured we would be sharing such news with all media sources."

During an interview Thursday, Riley said there's no information yet that sets this week's tips apart from the thousands that have flooded investigators since the girls' deaths.

"When you follow up on as many leads that we've followed up on, you don’t get too excited about something," he said.

Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby said FBI agents in Colorado likely will handle the preliminary questioning of Nations.

Local authorities could travel to the area "if it appears it may go deeper and leads to something that ties back to us," Leazenby added.